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Campaign Desk, The Kicker

Two Media Big-Wigs Put Their (Blue Collared) Heads Together?

By Liz Cox Barrett Wed 23 Apr 2008 10:23 AM 

Last night on MSNBC, Tim Russert said (with one of his Man, I’m plugged-in — or maybe I LOVE this game! — grins):

I was talking to someone who understands the game of tennis quite well and says this is very simple: Obama needs to win match point. He had his chance tonight. He had his chance in New Hampshire. He had his chance in Texas. It didn’t happen. Now it’s back to deuce point. He has to win Indiana and North Carolina in two weeks…

Who could that “someone” be? “Someone” who “understands” so well the game of country clubs and crisp Lacoste polos? “Someone,” perhaps, who also runs in Russert’s rarefied media world?

Maureen Dowd in her New York Times column today:

Obama has missed several opportunities to smash the ball over the net and end the game. Again and again, he has seemed stuck at deuce.

And from last week’s column (in which MoDo led with her ‘hood cred):

At match points, when Hillary fights like a cornered raccoon, Obama retreats into law professor mode.

Tennis analogies. A sure-thing to bolster the blue-collar cred, that must-have accessory for all the media Big Wigs this season.


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About the Author
Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.
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